Cain ducks claims, redirects

ROCHESTER, Mich. — With help from moderators who shied away from the sexual harassment scandal engulfing his campaign, Herman Cain got back to the basics that propelled him to the top of the GOP field Wednesday night.

Eight times Cain mentioned his 9-9-9 tax plan during the CNBC debate here at Oakland University. He turned questions about China trade policy and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into entrees to repeat three times his famous numeral.

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It was the best two hours for the campaign since Oct. 31, when POLITICO first reported that two women who worked for Cain at the National Restaurant Association when he was CEO filed sexual harassment complaints against him and then received financial settlements.

Cain shut down CNBC moderator Maria Bartiromo’s question about the serial sexual harassment allegations — which drew loud boos from the audience — by repeating much of what he said during his Tuesday press conference.

“The American people deserve better than someone being tried in the court of public opinion based on unfounded accusations,” he said, to loud applause. “And I value my character and my integrity more than anything else. And for every one person that comes forward with a false accusation, there are probably, there are thousands who would say none of that sort of activity ever came from Herman Cain.”

Cain insisted that the swirling controversy is not harming his campaign.

“A lot of people, despite what has happened over the last nine days, are still very enthusiastic behind my candidacy. Over the last nine days, over the last nine days, the voters have voted with their dollars, and they are saying they don’t care about the character assassination. They care about leadership and getting this economy growing and all of the other problems we face.”

Bartiromo did not ask a follow-up question.

When moderator John Harwood asked fellow front-runner Mitt Romney whether he would keep or fire Cain, had he purchased a company for which Cain was the CEO during his days as Bain Capital, Romney let Cain off the hook.

“Look, look, Herman Cain is the person to respond to these questions,” Romney said. “He just did. The people in this room and across the country can make their own assessment.”

The topic was not brought up again.

Cain spent the rest of his night hewing to a narrow focus on his 9-9-9 tax proposal. He reminded viewers of the simplicity of his plan, which is what his campaign credited for his initial rise.

While he didn’t say 9-9-9 once during the last debate, Oct. 18 in Las Vegas, Cain on Wednesday seized every opportunity to speak about his tax plan.

Warned by moderator Jim Cramer not to mention 9-9-9 in his response, Cain said: “Many of the things we talked about up here today starts with growing the economy. And that’s why we have got to use a bold plan — I won’t mention it — in order to grow the economy.”